Creative Mix of Online Marketing and Rural Products

The way that rural regions throughout the world are utilising the power of the online world to market their products are beginning to change dramatically. This is a great example of Indian Farmers selling animals online. While it may work a little differently in other parts of the world, the principles applies equally to a variety of products & services from rural regions.

“Now, Rural India is selling cows, buffaloes on the internet. Black ‘Murrah’ buffalo with short and tightly curled horns for Rs.80,000 and herd of 10 ‘Holstein Friesians’ cows at Rs.6 lakh on the click of the mouse — the Indian online classifieds are moving beyond usual items with increasing internet penetration in smaller towns and villages.

Online classifieds players Quikr and Olx are finding good traction for their business from semi urban and rural areas in states like West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Orissa, Assam and Uttar Pradesh. While the main metros continue to be top contributors to online classified players, the rapidly increasing internet usage in Tier 2 and Tier 3 towns has boosted their growth tremendously. Thus, it is not surprising that enterprising farmers are using them to sell their pets and animals as well. Still at a nascent stage, the sites are currently working on a hybrid model that includes paid listings and advertising.

With an internet user base of over 125 million, which is likely to grow to half a billion over the next few years, and an established mobile base of 950 million, coupled with a large and talented pool of human resources, India is a key player in the cyber world.”

As a local farming example, we posted our front end loader on a classified site in South Australia and within 3 hours had 5 phone calls, 3 of whom inspected the loader within 24 hours and the loader was subsequently sold within 72 hours (for more than the advertised price). Traditionally a classified advert would have be paid for in the local paper or farmers publication.